a plan for making money that involves encouraging people to invest by offering them a high rate of interest and using their money to pay earlier investors. When there are not enough new investors, people who have recently invested lose their money. 庞氏骗局,非法集资(指提供高息以吸引人们投资,将得来的钱用于偿还之前的投资者,而当没有足够的新投资者时,就会给最近的投资者造成损失) Word OriginFrom Charles Ponzi, who organized the first scheme of this kind in the US in 1919.